International Problems- Notes

 

International Problems- Notes

Till the last chapter, we studied the sovereign States in the international system, India’s foreign policy and India’s defence system. We also studied the objectives of the United Nations. In this chapter, we are going to study some important international problems. Some problems are not restricted to any one country. They affect many countries and eventually all the countries of the world. These problems that affect the whole world are called international problems. In order to solve these international problems, all nations need to make joint efforts.

 In this chapter, we shall therefore study problems related to human rights, environment and terrorism. Even the questions of refugees are now assuming global proportions. Hence we shall consider this issue as well. Human rights : The concept of human rights has emerged from the concept of natural rights. Natural rights are those rights that we are endowed with because we are born as human beings. In the same vein, human rights are those rights that are necessary for living as a human being and as a constituent of society.

The American and the French Revolutions proclaimed Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Justice as Human rights. The idea that in order to realise these rights, a democratic form of government is essential was strengthened. After that several European nations adopted democratic constitutions and governments. This brought limits on the authority of the State.

The main responsibility of the State came to be understood to be the protection of citizens’ rights. Rise of the concept of human rights in international relations : After the United Nations was established, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was prepared. It was adopted in the United Nations General Assembly by a majority vote on 10th December 1948. Later, in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Internal Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR). These two covenants are a part of International Law. Member Nations of the United Nations are bound to observe them.

The question of human rights was raised in United Nations General Assembly on several occasions during the Cold War period. Racial segregation in Africa was said to be against human rights and hence it was decided to boycott the regime there. Freedom for colonies and insistence on the democratic system could be cited as examples of the same. In modern times, problems like struggle against racism, border disputes, terrorism are jeopardizing human rights on a large scale. Apart from this, the concept of human rights has broadened due to several issues of global nature like contagious diseases, the threat to environment, natural disasters, etc. Human rights today also include goals like protection of the environment and sustainable development.

Human rights and India : In the Indian Constitution, human rights have been given the place of Fundamental Rights. The constitution gives the responsibility of the protection of the weaker sections like women and minorities to the government alongside that of the Fundamental Rights. In 1993, the Human Rights Protection Act was passed. As per this law, the National Human Rights Commission and the State Human Rights Commissions were established. The Human Rights Commission is responsible for taking cognizance of the complaints regarding violation of human rights and take appropriate action regarding such violation.

Secure environment : In the present times, the concept of Human Rights has become broader and it is increasingly being accepted that a secure environment is an important Human Right. At the international level, the awareness and need of saving the environment was expressed in 1970. The experts studying the environment believed that due to industrialisation on a large scale and the increasing need for energy has endangered the environment. These activists celebrated the first Earth Day on 22nd April 1970. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in agriculture, sound pollution due to vehicles, radiation from nuclear reactors, oil leakages or leakages of chemical gases make the environment unsafe and create various problems.

As a result of this awareness, the question of environmental safety began to be discussed at the international level. After the wave of globalisation that started in 1990, the interdependence among nations increased and therefore a need for nations to cooperate with each other emerged. The threat to the environment caused by pollution or by leakage of oil and gas does not remain restricted to one nation. Also, its effects are long term.

 It becomes necessary for nations to act with each other’s consent and cooperation in order to deal with these effects. The visible effects of the decline of environment are extinction of species of plants and animals, decrease in the fertility of soil, water shortage, fluctuation in the proportion of rainfall, global warming, drying up of rivers and lakes, pollution of rivers and seas, incidence of newer diseases, acid rain, thinning of the ozone layer, etc. Even if some of the effects are restricted to particular nations, these problems reach global proportions, due to their long term effects, while some problems are inherently of a global nature. Stockholm to Paris Conference In order to discuss the immediate and long term problems related to the environment and to find solutions on them, a United Nations Conference on human environment was called at Stockholm from 5th to 16th June 1972.

 In this conference, it was stressed that it is the responsibility of all nations to cooperate to overcome pollution. The developing nations feel that the developed nations are more responsible for the decline of the environment and they should take the responsibility for stopping the decline. Even today the developing countries take the same position. Another feature of this conference was that the non-governmental organisations working in the field of environmental protection were also present. The issue of the protection of the common global wealth was raised. A consensus emerged that it was the responsibility of all the nations to protect these resources.

 It was after this conference that the United Nations created the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Many international treaties about environment were signed after this conference. Several rules were made about the protection of environment. Environmental movements started on a large scale at national as well as at the international level. Nongovernmental organisations also assumed a bigger role in the decision making process at international conferences regarding the environment.

The next stage was the environmental conference at Rio in 1992. In this conference, the idea of sustainable development was stressed. Different treaties regarding bio-diversity, climate change due to green house gases, protection of forests, etc. were signed. In 1997, the conference at Kyoto laid down the protocols for the developed countries for preventing climate change. These were applicable for 15 years. After this, a conference on climate change was held at Paris in November 2015. An appeal was made in this conference that all nations should make concerted efforts to stop climate change and global warming and that the developed countries should help the developing countries to acquire the technology to achieve these goals.

Terrorism : This is a major problem of our times. Several countries in the world are facing this problem. No nation is capable of countering terrorism entirely on its own. Hence terrorism is considered to be a global problem. What is Terrorism? Terrorism is spreading fear and terror in a society by using or threatening to use violence against common and innocent people for achieving political goals.

Terrorism is organised and planned violence. Terrorism has made a deep and long term impact on international politics. In the last two decades, terrorist conflict appears to have intensified in different countries. Terrorist conflict is different from traditional war. Traditional war is a conflict between two or more sovereign States. In such wars, the geographical boundaries between nations acquire importance, i.e. national security is connected with geographical boundaries. On the other hand, in the case of terrorism, terrorist groups can cause violence in any part of the world from anywhere in the world. The aim of a terrorist attack is not to endanger the geographical boundaries, but to challenge a regime in a country or refuse to acknowledge the existence of the State. This means that due to increasing terrorism, the internal security of a country is threatened in addition to its external security. In order to curb terrorism, it is imperative that the security mechanisms of different nations should work in a concerted manner.